For our first foray into cooking with apples this fall, we decided on apple muffins. I took the backbone of our favorite blueberry muffin recipe, altered it slightly and came up with Apple-Oat Muffins. And, pausing to wipe the crumbs off my shirt, I can tell you I think it is pretty good. No complaints from the two- and four-year-old members of the peanut gallery, either.
Apple-Oat Muffins
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
- 1 cup light brown sugar, very loosely packed
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 cups flour (I used one cup unbleached white and one cup King Arthur’s White Wheat)
- 1/3 cup rolled oats
- 2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp. nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp. allspice
- 1/2 cup milk, plus 1-2 tablespoons if needed
- 2 1/2 cups diced, peeled apple
Preheat oven to 400.
Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla and eggs. Add flour, spices and baking powder, stir gently.
Add apple chunks and milk, adding milk slowly to keep batter sticky. Add a few more tablespoons of milk if necessary to stir batter.
Fill tins until heaping–this is important for tall, lovely muffins–sprinkle a few oats on each muffin and bake 20-25 minutes. You can also mix oats and brown sugar and sprinkle on each muffin for a crispier, sweeter crust.
Tell me what YOU do with apples in your house. Pie? Crisp? Gnaw them whole?
Happy fall!
Anna Sawin thinks this might be the year she masters apple pie. Anna blogs at Hank & Willie.
In our house we love to make apple crisp and pie. And our all-time favorite gadget is this apple corer peeler from LLBean. It was a fab wedding present!
http://reviews.llbean.com/1138/11900/reviews.htm
I have to say – we made the Deborah Madison apple crisp mentioned above, and it was great! I keep forgetting what a super cookbook that is.
i forgot to say–cover the fruit with the crumble–before baking–that’s what i get for typing while chatting about star wars.
the deborah madison apple crisp (or for any fruit crisp)=
6T butter, cut into small hunks
3/4 c brown sugar
2/3 c flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (or nuts, she says)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cinnamon
with fingers or a pastry blender or the paddle attachment of your mixer, mix it all together until it’s a coarse, crumbly mixture.
put lots of fruit in a shallow oven safe dish. (8x8inch recommended here, but i think it’s even enough topping for a 9×13 pan.) really heap the fruit on–it will cook down in the oven.
bake at 375 for 45 minutes or until hot & bubbly.
sounds delicious!!! another great use for apples is applesauce. it’s so yummy and makes the kitchen smell wonderful. sorry for the extra-long comment but here’s my recipe:
12 medium apples
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Wash, quarter, and core the apples. Place them in a large cooking pot and add the water. Over medium heat, cook the apples until they are nearly soft.
Add the sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon. Cook for a few minutes longer, then mash the apples and let cool. Serve warm or cold.
My notes:
the recipe says to press the apples through a sieve. i don’t have one so i just mash them with a potato masher.
my boys don’t like the skins so i remove most of them once it’s all done.
when you add the sugar, etc., i like to add raisins, too. YUM
i use as many apples as i have around, keep all the other ingredients the same, and it’s always great.
making this can take a little while so i usually make this when i’m stuck in the kitchen cooking something else. 🙂
can you share the crumble recipe?
anything that kicks off with a stick of butter is good! Those muffins sound fabulous. I have an apple cake recipe that is almost all apples in a minor matrix of cake. There’s no way I can tap it out on this wee phone keyboard though.
Apple crisp is my favorite–with the crumble part from Deborah Madison’s cooking fir everyone book. We keep the crumble in a bag in the freezer so it’s ready to top a fruit crisp whenever a fruit emergency strikes.